Save money abroad

Cook_County

missile wrote: »

I think you are confused. If OP has no UK address, he will find it hard to open a UK bank account.

EU law permits free movement of capital. A UK bank cannot discriminate (legally) against residents of another EU State.

Cook_County

missile wrote: »

I think it you who might be confused, where does he OP say he is domiciled in Spain?

The OP says he was born in Spain and has a Spanish passport. UK case law would indicate that such domicile of origin is very tenacious and mere residence in the UK - even for 30, 40 or 50 years - would not necessarily be enough to displace such domicile of origin.

The most recent, and thus most frequently quoted, case is of course Gaines-Cooper, but if you know of case law stating the opposite I would be glad to debate the concept of domcile of origin with you.

missile

Cook_County wrote: »

EU law permits free movement of capital. A UK bank cannot discriminate (legally) against residents of another EU State.

Anyone can open an account anywhere, but as I said without a UK address and other documents to satisfy money laundering regulations he will find it difficult.
For your info, I have opened bank accounts in several EU countries and each time I have been asked to prove I have an address in that country.

missile

Cook_County wrote: »

The OP says he was born in Spain and has a Spanish passport. UK case law would indicate that such domicile of origin is very tenacious and mere residence in the UK - even for 30, 40 or 50 years - would not necessarily be enough to displace such domicile of origin.

The most recent, and thus most frequently quoted, case is of course Gaines-Cooper, but if you know of case law stating the opposite I would be glad to debate the concept of domcile of origin with you.

Per HM Revenue&Customs Website>
Residence

Residence is a complex subject. The terms residence and ordinary residence are not defined in the Taxes Acts. HMRC guidelines about their meanings are largely based on rulings of the courts.
HMRC Residency provides specialist advice to HMRC offices on the residence and ordinary residence status of individuals for UK income tax and capital gains tax purposes.
HMRC Residency also provide general guidance to both HMRC offices and members of the public on the liability to UK income tax and capital gains tax of individuals who are not resident in the UK.
Further information can be obtained by telephoning the HMRC Residency helpline.
Domicile

Domicile is a concept of general law. There are many factors which affect domicile but some of the main points are given in the booklet IR20. Broadly speaking, you are domiciled in the country where you have your permanent home. Domicile is distinct from nationality or residence. You can only have one domicile at any given time.
HMRC Residency provides specialist advice to HMRC offices on the domicile of individuals where it is material to the calculation of the individual's UK income tax or capital gains tax liabilities.
You should contact your own Tax Office if you have any queries on your domicile position.

**************
Please note: The OP said he has a full time job and presumably pays UK tax, he has a spanish passport, he may or may not be domiciled in the UK. However, as I said, if he is domiciled in Spain he cannot legally have a "non-resident" bank account.
Domiciled is a quaint archaic concept, dating back to fuedal times and peculiar to the UK.
For your information, I have lived and worked and been domiciled in three different EU countries.

Cook_County

missile wrote: »

Per HM Revenue&Customs Website>
Residence

Residence is a complex subject. The terms residence and ordinary residence are not defined in the Taxes Acts. HMRC guidelines about their meanings are largely based on rulings of the courts.
HMRC Residency provides specialist advice to HMRC offices on the residence and ordinary residence status of individuals for UK income tax and capital gains tax purposes.
HMRC Residency also provide general guidance to both HMRC offices and members of the public on the liability to UK income tax and capital gains tax of individuals who are not resident in the UK.
Further information can be obtained by telephoning the HMRC Residency helpline.
Domicile

Domicile is a concept of general law. There are many factors which affect domicile but some of the main points are given in the booklet IR20. Broadly speaking, you are domiciled in the country where you have your permanent home. Domicile is distinct from nationality or residence. You can only have one domicile at any given time.
HMRC Residency provides specialist advice to HMRC offices on the domicile of individuals where it is material to the calculation of the individual's UK income tax or capital gains tax liabilities.
You should contact your own Tax Office if you have any queries on your domicile position.

**************
Please note: The OP said he has a full time job and presumably pays UK tax, he has a spanish passport, he may or may not be domiciled in the UK. However, as I said, if he is domiciled in Spain he cannot legally have a "non-resident" bank account.
Domiciled is a quaint archaic concept, dating back to fuedal times and peculiar to the UK.
For your information, I have lived and worked and been domiciled in three different EU countries.

I am glad we agree, domicile is indeed a quaint archaic concept!

However, it is not unique to the UK. It came from the ancient Roman concept of domus, or home and is used by the Republic of Ireland, most States within the United States, to cover jurisdiction for divorce, on death and many other matters.

If you have changed your domicile 3 times you probably unique. I have advised on domicile for over 25 years and I know of no case law (going back several hundred years) where anybody settled permanantly in 3 legal jurisdictions expecting never to leave there (indeed a domicile in this sense is based on true permanence so one would have most of one's friends, bank accounts, connections, pensions, and ultimately it would be the place where one expects to be buried).

The UK today has 5-6 million people who were born abroad or whose father was born abroad who are not domiciled here within a UK sense because they have not BOTH forned a fixed intention to stay here for ever AND abandoned connectioons in their domcile of origin.

For these reasons, until April 2008 all such folks can invest offshore and pay no UK tax on investment income. After 5 April 2008 the rules will change as I outlined before. An offshore account is normally in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, not in Spain.

missile

You are obviously a profesional advisor and doubtless know far more about TAX law than I. My understanding of the word domicile is as per H&M Revenue and Customs

Broadly speaking, you are domiciled in the country where you have your permanent home. Domicile is distinct from nationality or residence.

All gods children are unique but I am certainly not the only UK national to have had a permanent home in three diffferent EU countries.

Cook_County

I too have resided in one than country. Domicile has a very specific meaning in English and Scottish law. "Permanent" as you rightly quoted, means for ever but you do not have to have resided in that place. So a child born today to a recent Polish immigrant would be domiciled in Poland even if that child had not been there. As you said the law is archaic and odd! The meaning in -say - French law is quite different and more similar to the UK definition of ordinary residence. It is quite possible that you were domiciled in one or more other country using the meaning of that word under that jurisdictions' local law. In a UK sense you would have remained domiciled here quite simply because you had not settled there for ever. This would only had become relevant had you died while resident in one of those countries because your worldwide estate would have remained subject to UK inheritance tax even though you would not have been a UK resident on the date of death.

The OP is a national of Spain and may similarly find that Spanish enforced heirship law over-rides UK testementary law on some assets in the event of his/her death. This could create issues if s/he went ahead and opened a bank account in Spain and died with the account in existence.

Jolly_Roger_4

missile wrote: »

If you are domiciled in Germany you ought to declare your income from savings in the UK, but you would need a UK address.

Many thanks to missile and Cook County for a very interesting discussion.
Declaring my savings income in Germany shall be no problem, as a German taxpayer I am allowed to earn yearly 1600Euro (Married) interest before the tax man takes his cut. If I was also to open an account for my child I get another 800Euro tax free interest. Since my present savings are not so high, I would have little to no disadvantage in declaring the interest.

However the problem with the address remains. Is it enough to use the address of my parents or brother as a posting address, or do I also require a personal residents UK address for a non-resident savings account?

missile

Hm....... only 1600€s personal allowance. Is that per couple or each? Seems we are not so bad in UK after all?

Since my present savings are not so high,

I would suggest it is not worth the hassle and watch out for currency fluctuations. You might want to look here http://www.find.co.uk/banking/offshore_banking_centre/offshore_banking/?partner=msn2offshore_accounts?utm_source=MSN&utm_medium=PPC

Jolly_Roger_4

Per person your allowed to earn 800€ interest a year before your interest gets taxed, all interest over this 800€ per person gets taxed at 30%. This means as married with 1 child I have an allowance of approx. 2400€ tax free interest.
It's a good system for people with a relatively low amount of savings as you don't get taxed at all! But then again with an average interest rate of 3,5 % even an English savings account with the 20% tax turns out better.